Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Mountain villages: Telluride, Snowmass Village, Leadville

Oh damn, so much has happened!! Firstly, after Boulder 70.3 I chilled a bit in Colorado Springs again. Then, onto the next great adventures!

TELLURIDE:

Most notably, this town is awesome because it is a TOWN where people live year-round. Compared to other mountain towns, which see primarily tourists and seasonal workers, I felt right at home here. I went for my last long run here (30k) before IMKY, and it was beautiful!! Muscles responded surprisingly well, just 3 days after Boulder 70.3, but my feet felt a little beat up. Photos:

Dude painting the mountains. Isn't life amazing??

I sooooo needed this (and food, plenty of it!)
after my long run.

To cap off the long training day, I joined my couchsurfing
host on a group swim at the Telluride Community Pool.
Gorgeous pool... I thought swimming at 7000ft was hard,
try 9000ft!! Then again, I'm just about to hit the Leadville
pool, and that's at 10,152ft! AWESOME!!

Sunset at Mountain Village!

SNOWMASS VILLAGE:

From Telluride, I stayed in Snowmass Village for a couple days, including August 13th -- my 23rd birthday!! I had a birthday ride planned, and it was EPIC!! Before that, however: swimming and more exploring:

Snowmass Village 2-lane 25-yd pool. You'd think that'd be
shitty, but it was actually AWESOME b/c no one seems to
lap swim here? Pool all to myself!

Birthday sushi with my couchsurfing host, Jack. AWESOME!

Exploring the grottos somewhere along Independence Pass.

Maroon Bells, a beauuuutiful 14er.

And here's some of the birthday ride:

Independence Pass is obviously the big one. The smaller one
is up Maroon Ck Rd towards the Maroon Bells.

AMAZING!

Going up Independence Pass!

Jersey is the MUCyc jersey: Melbourne Uni Cycling Club.
I miss my cycling boys back in Melb, Australia. They're going
through winter right now, though, so I don't miss that...

Rehydrate from running water by the side of
the road... how perfect is that??

Anyyyyyway, I'm now in Leadville, checking out the town, doing some training and also, most excitingly, I am crewing for a friend attempting his first 100-miler run race. It's the Leadville Trail 100 this weekend (Aug 20-21), and I can't WAIT to be his sherpa. It's going to be epic! I hope to be of some use (he's already got a pacer for the back 50 miles), mainly making sure he's fed, watered, and when he's too tired to think, to take pictures to commemorate this day in his life, and to keep him positive! Should be surreal!

2 comments:

OH MY GOD.I'm now officially jealous of you.Beforehand I was like, wow super cool! BUT you were in Telluride!? AND CREWING FOR ONE OF MY DREAM RACES!? You'd better freaking take loads of pictures. wekrjwklerjwlejrwljerwkjerlkwjerlkjwerlkjwlkerjYou are sooooooooooooooo luckyyyyyyyyyyyyyShannon Farar-Griefer is going to be there! WHAAATTTTTT. Not to mention a ton of other ultra talent. Sheesh.None of my idols though, or at least not that I saw. HAVE FUN AND wow i'm so amazed.

Steph, I don't know any ultrarunners by name/face, so I'll probs be chatting to them about poop or some other ridiculous thing, and they'll be like the most famous ultra runner on the planet and I won't even know. It'll be legendary!!!!